One of the most important things about creating vision boards is choosing the right vision board pictures.The visual representation of your goals is the key factor in how vision boards work.
So it’s also the part very many mistakes happen.
But before we dive intohow to choose quality visuals and where to find pictures for your vision board, let’s take a quick look at what this powerful manifestation tool is and why you should make a vision board for your manifestations.
What Are Vision Boards & Why Should You Create One
A vision board example is a poster board with images of your ideal life on it, so it’s a manifestation tool that helps you visualize your future, your goals, and your dreams.
Some people call it a dream board, manifestation board, or even a bucket list; the purpose is the same.
In thisvision board guide, I go much deeper on the mechanism behind them and how to make a vision board, but in this post here, I want to concentrate only on the images.
In other words, how to choose a picture that reprograms your subconscious and sparks your motivation to take action.
You can use all sorts of visuals on your dream board.
Photos, words, affirmations, inspirational quotes… These are all great ideas for your vision board.
Important is that your visuals make you feel good and send a powerful message to your subconscious mind. Because that’s where the manifestation magic happens.
How Many Pictures Should You Put on a Vision Board
There is really no set rule for how many pictures you should have on a vision board. This depends a lot on your goals and thevision board themeyou have chosen.
It’s a good idea not to have only one image per goal. Think about how you can add more meaning to the image; how can you express your WHY behind it more strongly?
For example, if you want to manifest your dream house, instead of just sticking an image from the house to your vision board, how about also adding some pictures of your desired interior, maybe a map with the location, and some powerful words, affirmations or a quote.
On the other hand, you should avoid clutter on your vision board.
So make sure it’s not too cluttered, and the single images/goals get enough space to truly have an impact on your subconscious.
How to Choose Your Vision Board Images
Manifesting your dreams is all about three things, and you should keep them in mind when you start searching for your vision board pictures:
- Energy:what energetic level are you at, and on what energetical level is the dream you want to achieve. (And how can you match the two).
- Emotions:emotions are the fuel that drives your energetic level. That’s why it’s also important that you associate many positive emotions with your dream life and stay in this emotional state as often as possible. In short: you need to energetically and emotionally align your goals to your subconscious, and that brings us to the last point.
- Your Subconscious Mind:in the end, everything comes together right there, in your subconscious mind. This is like your control center that guides your thoughts, your habits, and your actions. And in the end, it determines if you reach your dream or not.
Use Images That Trigger the Right Emotions (Because Emotions Manifest!)
When looking for images for your own vision board, choose some which immediately make you say: “Yes! This sparks joy for me”.
Instead of just focusing on the perfect aesthetic of your images, concentrate on how they make you feel.
If you want to manifest your new dream home, you might end up searching for the right pictures, but you can’t quite tell what it is that you are looking for.
You might know the type of house you love to live in and the area. And maybe even some details about the interior design.
But most importantly, you know how you want to feel once you walk through that door.
Now, look at different pictures of houses. Which one gives you the exact same emotion? That’s the one to choose.
You could also implementcolor psychologywhen you decide on your visuals. Bright colors, for example, represent happiness and make you instantly feel more high-vibe.
But before you can start choosing pictures for your board, the first thing you must decide on is your vision board theme.
Want to learn more about the emotional triggers your vision board image should have?
Choose Your Vision Board Theme or Template
Do you want a beach vacation? A house in the woods? Your dream wedding? Manifesting money?
Before you can even think about where to find pictures and start creating your vision board and even cutting out the first pictures, you need to get an idea of what you want.
A vision board always starts with goal setting; ask yourself what your ideal life would look like, dream big, and get inspired by your BIG vision in life.
Once you have a clear picture of what your ideal life could look like, it’s time to plan your theme.
A vision board theme can be very specific, like a dream board just for manifesting love. Or it can mean that you group a few big goals you have in your life together.
But to make your image search easier, it’s good to think about your vision board theme first.
Do you want more ideas & inspiration?Read this post I wrote on differentvision board themes.
When you mapped out your goals, the overall theme, and maybe even created a template for your vision board, the image search can begin!
WHERE TO FIND VISION BOARD IMAGES
So there are really endless ways to find images for your vision board, but I created this list to make it easier for you.
Always keep your goals and theme in mind. And maybe you also like a specific aesthetic. Also, are you going to create a physical vision board or a digital vision board?
All this can be important on where you are most likely to find the right pictures.
Using Magazines for Vision Boards
This one is probably the most traditional place to find pictures for vision boards.
I personally prefer to use a printer for my images, as you are more likely to find the right images online.
But magazine cutouts are still very popular, as they can give your vision board a certain look and feel. And if you don’t mind flipping through stacks of magazines to find the perfect images. Go for it.
I love magazines to cut out power words.
So let’s have a look at where you find old magazines for your vision board images.
6 Places to Get Free Magazines for Your Vision Board
- Check What You Already Have– Captain Obvious here… but most likely, you already have some old magazines somewhere in the house you just forgot about. Searching for them is a great way to declutter the house.
- Ask Your Neighbors– make a little tour around the hood.
- Ask Your Friends & Family– make a Facebook post, tell your friends what you need, and I’m sure some have a few magazines they can hand over to you.
- Check at the Local Doctors Office –before they throw away the magazines from the waiting room.
- Go to a Recycling Place –sometimes, you can find entire bundles of glossy magazines.
- Local Thrift Store –you can ask if they have some they would trough away because they don’t think they can sell them. Otherwise, you could buy some, they usually only cost around a quarter.
Online Vision Board Images Sources
As I said, I prefer to print out my vision board images instead of using magazine cutouts.
The reason is that this way, you can get very specific with your images and find exactly the right visuals to represent your goals and dreams.
The more specific and the more you can emotionally connect your images, the better.
For example, if you want to use your own vision board to lose weight, and reach a certain fitness goal, then you need to find images that represent the kind of body type YOU want to achieve.
Cutting out fitness models from a magazine is maybe too far off from your goal and would not send the right message.
If you can find someone online that looks similar to you and has the body you dream of, then this image is definitely the better choice for your board and to stay motivated on your journey.
Using a printer gives you more focus on what is your true inspiration. And much more flexibility in finding the right images and also enough photos to fill your new board with.
So online sources where you could find images for your vision boards could be:
- Canva
- Etsy
- Stockphoto sites like iStockphoto, Pexels, Shutterstock, or Unsplash.
A word about image copyright:You should not just steal any images from the internet, not even for your vision boards. If you have your vision boards just for yourself and hang them on your wall or keep them on your phone, I guess it’s ok.
But keep copyrights in mind when you plan to share your vision board publicly.
Take Your Own Photos as Your Vision Board Pictures
Vision boards don’t always need to be in physical form.
As an alternative, you could also consider a digital vision board. This is great if you are often on the go or simply because you do not have a way to print out ideas for your vision board.
Save Pictures on Your Phone and Use Them as a Digital Vision Board
As an alternative, you could also consider a digital vision board. This is great if you are often on the go or simply because you do not have a way to print out ideas. for your vision board.
Besides just saving some pictures on your phone, here are more ideas onhow to make a vision board online.
Does a Vision Board Have to Have Pictures
Absolutely not; a vision board does not need to have pictures on it to work. Any visual representation of your goals does work.
Putting pictures on your vision board is only one example of how you can send your subconscious that powerful message about your goals and ideal life on a daily basis.
You can get really creative when choosing visual triggers for your dream board.
Here are a few other vision board ideas that aren’t pictures:
Motivational Quotes or Positive Affirmations
I love to mix and match all the law of attraction tools to make my manifestation routine more exciting. And adding positive affirmations, inspirational quotes, or other words of motivation to your board is a great way to do so.
Positive affirmations are a way to affirm positive statements about yourself and your life. These are a type of self-talk that can help you feel more optimistic, empowered, or in control.
You can just write affirmations directly on your board, or check out my PROvision board toolkit, as it includes 800+ vision board printables with affirmationcards, clipart, and power words, to stick on your new board.
Bucket Lists & Goal Lists
Lists are also a great way to use the space on vision boards.
You can just list all the goals you want to achieve or become even more creative; from bucket lists to lists that are a visual representation of a specific theme, you are free to create a list that directs your subconscious in the right direction.
For example, if your dream wedding is part of your new board, how about creating a to-do list on how to organize your perfect party?
Sentimental Objects to Trigger Stronger Emotions
There are different things you can choose, such as dried flowers that will remind you of a wonderful trip with your family (if you want to manifest more of such great moments).
A piece of fabric from your dream wedding dress (for that big day you want to manifest.) Or the keychain with a mini Eiffel tower that a friend brought you from Paris (the city you’ve been dreaming of all your life…)
Small items that anchor a certain emotion are the perfect addition to your board and make it so much more fun than just gluing a picture on it. Or you can pin them on your cork board with the help of decorative pins.
In this post here, I share even morevision board ideasthat aren’t just pictures.
Manifestation Check / Vision Board Check
Want to manifest money and attract financial freedom?
Then adding a vision board check to your board and writing the amount on it is a great way to tell your subconscious about your financial goals.
You can just click on the image belowand sign up for free for my community-only emails, andI’ll send you three pretty printable manifestation checks right into your inbox!
Make a Collage of Your Photos (Aka Create Your Dream Board)
When you have all your photos (and other creatives) ready, it’s time to stick them on your board.
There are a few things to keep in mind when creating your final dream board.
Your eye should be able to quickly grasp what your goal is, and this should trigger the right emotions in you. Therefore it should be clear that your board should not be too chaotic.
Clutter can be a major abundance block; that’s why it’s so important to keep your manifestation tools (and your law of attraction routine) clutter-free.
You can search for vision board examples online to get an idea and inspiration of what your perfect board could look like.
But my best tip is to use a template that is unique to you or just theme your photos together.
Create groups for the different goals; you could have one large piece in the middle (like an affirmative word) and a few meaningful pictures around it.
With most things in life, less is often more. The same goes for your vision board.
If you have too many photos, don’t worry. Take a few moments to review your ideal life.
What would your best life look like?Then look at all the photos you have chosen for your board, and ask yourself if you really need all of them to have the ideal visual representations of your desires.
So don’t forget,choosing the right vision board images is only the start to manifesting your big dreams; ifyou want more help with manifesting your dreams, I suggest yousign up for my email manifestation tips.
PS. If you want to learn more about vision boards,sign up here(and your free vision board checks as a gift!)